D’Angelico Excel 1943 – Sunburst

Made for William Siebert and completed on July 3, 1943, this stunning archtop was handcrafted by legendary New York luthier John D’Angelico.

These instruments, while all beautiful, do not all sound the same. This is one of the VERY good sounding ones. It projects wonderfully with a loud, sweet and pleasantly percussive tone, but retains a very nice responsiveness making it well suited for fingerpicked chord melody work and more subtle and nuanced acoustic music. (as well as loud rhythm work and picked leads, obviously) The maple back and sides have a wonderful flame to them and the neck is simply gorgeous with a lovely diagonal flame. Amazingly, the guitar is completely crack free and it has a perfect neck angle allowing for nice low action. The top is nice and rounded with no sag, as is the back. A rare sight indeed! The inlays are gorgeous, with the owners name engraved at the 15th fret. A unique touch that makes this D’Angelico special. There is some finish checking all throughout the guitar as well as general wear in the finish and binding. It has been professionally refretted with period correct fret wire and is playing and sounding superb. It stays in tune nicely and is overall simply a joy to play. The original case is included, but the hinges on the back of the case are broken. The original pickguard and hardware are included, but it has some slight off gassing and had a hole for an output jack. In addition, there are two small screw holes on the bass side of the fingerboard extension where a mounting rail for a DeArmond pickup was installed. All in all, this is a wonderful example of a golden era D’Angelico. Jump on it while it lasts! Ships promptly, pro packed and fully insured.